Alphabet Soup
by Misgiving Writer
Summary: It starts with a simple word and, as it grows, it changes into so much more. Following five cats and the pains they face, but all cause because of one. His name was Cedarheart.


A/N: Hello, hello! I'm back, with another challenge entry! This time, it's for the Alphabet Soup Challenge, on the Warriors Challenge Forum. A very fun challenge to complete, that's for sure!

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A - always

"I will always remember you, my dear." Bluepetal murmurs, pressing the dark fur of her muzzle into the silver pelt of the smaller she-cat. The queen can still smell the scent of her first daughter, one that is warm and so very much like her fathers, on the chilled fur. She can still hear the young kit asking her mother to come out and play with her. If she closes her eyes tight enough, Bluepetal can even pretend that she can feel the rise and fall of tiny flanks. And that is what she will see and hear and feel everytime she thinks of her darling Silverkit.

B - broken

"No!" She yowls, backing away from the tom. The dark brown tabby in front of her doesn't look surprised, but there is hurt in his green eyes. And, in that moment, Bluepetal doesn't care. Why should she care when this tom is telling such lies? When Thornmask is saying things that make her feel lost and broken inside? "You're lieing, Thornmask! Cedarheart isn't dead! He can't be!"

C - colors

Bluepetal is curled up in the nursury, eyes nearly closed and muzzle resting in the soft moss that is her nest. Nestled in the crook of her belly, small pink noses pressed into her soft white fur, are four beautiful kits. Two look like she does, with an extra smattering of white here and there. One is a deep, dark brown. And the fourth, the runt of the litter, a tom, is a light shade of brown with a single white paw. He is the same color as his father was.

D - dissapointment

"My answer is final. I don't want you to become a medicine cat, Cedarkit." Bluepetal meows, tone stern. She flicks her tail to the side and closes her eyes for a moment. "You will be a warrior, just like your brother. And you will be a great one, I know! The type that cats will talk about for generations to come! You will be just like your father!" When she opens them, she tries to ignore the look of dissapointment that rests in her sons amber gaze.

E - eager

"Mother! Mother!" Mistkit calls out as she bounds into the nursury. Her silver-blue fur is coated in dust, her one white paw nearly black with dirt. She waits anxiously for Bluepetal to turn away from Raindapple, an expecting queen, to start speaking again. "Hawkstar said that he'll make me an apprentice soon! Isn't that great?" The older she-cat nods but doesn't speak - and the young kit finds herself wondering why Bluepetal doesn't look as eager as she feels.

F - forgotten

Aspenkit pads into the nursury, small mouse clamped between his jaws. As she does, two silver heads pop out of the mussed bundle of moss that is their nest. Her brother tilts his head to the side, blue eyes wide but not surprised. Her sister catches sight of the mouse and then lays back down, amber eyes shining with sorrow. And, as she must so often, Aspenkit can only explain her actions to her siblings. Could only explain that, once more, they had been forgotten. "Mother took Cedarkit out to Sunning Rocks for the evening. I figured we should get something to eat while we could."

G - gone

Sometimes, Fogkit wonders about his father. The elders say that he died a hero. That he fought off three Shadowclan toms when the camp was raided, protecting all those taking shelter in the Elders Den. He saved them all, Willowsong often says, but the wounds he recieved were too great. He joined Starclan before Bluepetal had a chance to give birth to her second litter. The young blue-grey tom always nods at the old she-cats prattle and then, as he makes his way back to the nursury, he wonders if things would be different had Cedarheart survived that battle.

H - hope

It is the day of her kits apprenticeship and Bluepetal sits at the very front of the High Rock. On either side of her sit her kits and, behind her, the rest of the clan. She has been waiting for this day for what seems like moons and, for her, Hawkstar is taking too much time in leaving his den. When the battle-scarred tom finally does make his way to the top of the large stone, Streampelt sitting down beside him, she can only hope that she is making the right decision.

I - ignored

Mistpaw thought that it would be different. That, by becoming an apprentice, things would change. She would finally be noticed, by both her mother and her clan. Then, she could work hard and become the type of warrior that the elders always talk about. The type that her father was! She thought those things - but she knows now that they were only fantasies. Her mentor, Tigerstripe, is just as bad as her mother. The tom is too focused on Raindapple and the kits that will soon be born to give her any training at all. Once again, she finds herself ignored.

J - jinxed

"I must be jinxed! That's the only reason that I'd be so horrible at this." Cedarpaw meows to himself as, once again, he pads across the camp and over to the medicine cat's den. He often finds himself here after training, even when it is the simplest move that he's practicing. Even after a whole moon of training he has yet to learn anything - and even his mentor, Hareleap, is beginning to tire of it. So Cedarpaw calls himself jinxed and acts like he's really trying to learn - and every time he walks into the medicine cat's den, he savors the bitter tang of herbs and wishes that this was the life he was allowed to lead.

K - kestrel

Kestrelcall is a very strict tom. He wants everything done right. Perfect. Better than any other cat in the forest, he is constantly telling Aspenpaw, better even then Cedarheart. And Aspenpaw tries so very hard to make his mentor happy, to finally make at least one cat in his life proud of him. But, sometimes, the older tom just asks for too much.

L - lost

"No, wait!" Fogpaw begs. "You can't just leave me here, Eagleclaw!" The dark brown tom pauses and turns to look at the young tom. Tilts his head and flicks his ears. Then once more starts padding into the underbrush of Thunderclan's forest, telling his apprentice that he needs to find his own way back to camp. The problem is, Eagleclaw has never taken Fogpaw this far away before and he is completely and utterly lost.

M - mourn

The still night air is broken by a yowl. One that is so distraught you would think her entire world has been ripped away from her. But then, that is very much how Aspenpaw feels. Her brothers body is laying in the middle of camp, once grey-blue pelt matted with a dark red, and Kestrelclaw stands in front of her, trying to explain what has happened. Something about training going wrong and foxes attacking while Fogpaw was out in the forest alone - but she isn't really paying attention because that is her brother that has gone to join Starclan and she and her siblings seem to be the only ones mourning.

N - night

Bluepetal does not sleep well at night. She hasn't since her mate, her loving Cedarheart, was cruely ripped from her. Whenever she closes her eyes, his mangled body is all that she sees. So she often tries to stay awake and, when she sits just outside of the warriors den all alone at night, she often thinks about what life would be like were he still with her.

O - over

"I just want this to be over, Aspenpaw." Mistpaw whispers, muzzle pressed into the dark fur of her sister. It hurts to say this out loud. To have someone else hear the what she so often thinks. But she can't lie to Aspenpaw, not when the other she-cat has done so much for her. "I don't matter here, so why can't it all just be over?"

P - pressure

_You don't understand! _That's what Cedarpaw wants to scream at his two sisters. He wants to yowl it in their faces everytime they send scornful looks in his direction or ignore him when he speaks. Because, really, they don't. Bluepetal doesn't treat them the same she treats him. Their mother isn't constantly looking over their shoulders, asking them _couldn't they do better?_

Q - quicker

_Quicker_, demands Kestrelclaw. The large brown tom flicks his tail once, dark green eyes narrowed in irritation, and waits for Aspenpaw to rise to her paws. The young cat is crouched at the foot of a tall oak tree, flanks heaving as she tries to catch her breath. Her paws throb and the tender skin of her pads feel as though they are burnt. She wants only to lay there or, even better, to go back to the camp. Instead, like her mentor wants, she rises to her paws and flings herself at the tree once more.

R - right

"That's not true, Ottersplash!" Bluepetal snarls, ears flattening against her skull. She narrows her eyes at the medicine cat, all but daring her to say otherwise. "You have only ever seen Cedarpaw from a distance! I raised him! And he is a warrior, not a medicine cat! I am his mother and I am doing what I _know_ is right. The prophecy doesn't speak about him."

S - silent

Mistpaw doesn't get it. There is not a cat in the clan that cannot see she isn't getting her proper training. Tigerstripe is always in the nursury, doting on his newly-born kits, and leaving her to fend for herself. To try and teach herself to fight and hunt, learning only by watching the other cats be trained. She thinks that someone should speak up and help her, but the entire clan stays silent.

T - trust

"Why should we trust you?" Aspenpaw demands of him, shouldering her sister behind her. It hurts Cedarpaw that they need to ask that. That their mother has caused such chaos between them that they don't believe his explanation and his plea for help. Aspenpaw is furious and Mistpaw is confused and all that Cedarpaw can think of to say is - _because I'm your brother_.

U - up

The call for battle is sounded late at night and, as the other cats fling themselves to their paws and out of the den, Cedarpaw finds himself jousled and kept in his nest. Fear keeps him from following them out - because, in just moments, the sound of cats out for blood has filled the camp. More than anything, he wishes that he could just slink away to the Ottersplash's den and fake a wound; but that would be going back on the promise he made just last moon, and so he forces himself up onto his paws and moves to join his sisters in the fight.

V - violent

The world is a violent place. This is something that Bluepetal knows all to well. It was proven when she was a kit and her elder brother, a medicine cat, was murdered for a prophecy that he'd made. It was proven when her father, a leader, was killed on the night of a full moon. It was proven when her mate, the bravest and kindest cat that she'd ever met, was killed protecting her clans elders. Now, it is being proven again when her kits are being forced to fight in a battle they shouldn't be involved in, over something said generations before their time.

W - wild

Mistpaw doesn't think as she moves. A blow comes towards her and she ducks. A cat lunges at her and she crouches. When the chance arises, she strikes back. In those strikes, she puts all of her rage and her anger at being abandoned by her clan. She fights as though she is one of the wild beasts of legend, leaving wounds in all who dare intrude in her camp. It is after she takes out a large she-cat that she catches sight of Owltuft, an elder, struggling to get away from an invader. Mistpaw doesn't think when she lunges herself in front of that strange cat, taking the blow meant for Owltuft.

X - xanadu

_Xanadu_, Aspenpaw thinks, _that's what this is_. And truly there have been few words to describe Starclan's hunting grounds in such a way. Exotic. Luxorious. Foreign. Even more so here, at the Pool of Sights. It is in this pool that the young she-cat can see her remaining two siblings from - and as she watches them, she knows that it is not Cedarpaw that the prophecy speaks of. No, when the foreign medicine cat spoke of a kit whose courage would rival that of its father, yet whose loss would beat all who live in the clan, he was talking about someone else entirely...

Y - yew

"I can't do this again, Mistpaw. I'm not meant to fight and hurt other cats. I'm just - I'm not!" Cedarpaw meows, voice showing that he is broken in a way that can never be fixed. "All that blood and pain...And what happened to Aspenpaw...I don't want to see it again. I _won't_ see it again!" He knows that his sister understands what he is saying when she turns her own broken eyes away from him and pads out of Ottersplash's den, leaving him alone with the dark scarlet berries at his paws.

Z - zealous

It is in this moment, as they watch the young she-cat recieve her warrior name, that the clan can finally see what they've done. They can see that the once over-zealous Mistpaw has been beaten down and forced to submit - all because they never spoke up. They did this to her and, it is because of that realization, that they can barely bring themselves to clal out her new name. _Mistheart_.


End file.
